The building of Solomon's temple.
6:1. And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after
the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year
of the reign of Solomon over Israel, in the month Zio, (the same is the
second month) he began to build a house to the Lord.
6:2. And the house, which king Solomon built to the Lord, was threescore
cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits in
height.
6:3. And there was a porch before the temple, of twenty cubits in
length, according to the measure of the breadth of the temple: and it
was ten cubits in breadth, before the face of the temple.
6:4. And he made in the temple oblique windows.
6:5. And upon the wall of the temple, he built floors round about, in
the walls of the house, round about the temple and the oracle, and he
made chambers in the sides round about.
Upon the wall, i. e., joining to the wall.-Ibid. He built floors round
about... Chambers or cells adjoining to the temple, for the use of the
temple and of the priests, so contrived as to be between the inward and
outward wall of the temple, in three stories, one above another.-Ibid.
The oracle... The inner temple or holy of holies, where God gave his
oracles.
6:6. The floor that was underneath was five cubits in breadth, and the
middle floor was six cubits in breadth, and the third floor was seven
cubits in breadth. And he put beams in the house round about on the
outside, that they might not be fastened in the walls of the temple.
6:7. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stones, hewed
and made ready: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool
of iron heard in the house when it was in building.
Made ready, etc... So the stones for the building of God's eternal
temple in the heavenly Jerusalem, (who are the faithful,) must first be
hewn and polished here by many trials and sufferings, before they can be
admitted to have a place in that celestial structure.
6:8. The door, for the middle side, was on the right hand of the house:
and by winding stairs they went up to the middle room, and from the
middle to the third.
6:9. So he built the house, and finished it: and he covered the house
with roofs of cedar.
6:10. And he built a floor over all the house, five cubits in height,
and he covered the house with timber of cedar.
6:11. And the word of the Lord came to Solomon,
6:12. As for this house, which thou art building, if thou wilt walk in
my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments,
walking in them, I will fulfil my word to thee, which I spoke to David
thy father.
6:13. And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and I
will not forsake my people Israel.
6:14. So Solomon built the house, and finished it.
6:15. And he built the walls of the house on the inside, with boards of
cedar, from the floor of the house to the top of the walls, and to the
roofs, he covered it with boards of cedar on the inside: and he covered
the floor of the house with planks of fir.
6:16. And he built up twenty cubits with boards of cedar at the hinder
part of the temple, from the floor to the top: and made the inner house
of the oracle to be the holy of holies.
6:17. And the temple itself, before the doors of the oracle, was forty
cubits long.
6:18. And all the house was covered within with cedar, having the
turnings, and the joints thereof artfully wrought, and carvings
projecting out: all was covered with boards of cedar: and no stone could
be seen in the wall at all.
6:19. And he made the oracle in the midst of the house, in the inner
part, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
6:20. Now the oracle was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in
breadth, and twenty cubits in height. And he covered it, and overlaid it
with most pure gold. And the altar also he covered with cedar.
6:21. And the house before the oracle he overlaid with most pure gold,
and fastened on the plates with nails of gold.
6:22. And there was nothing in the temple that was not covered with
gold: the whole altar of the oracle he covered also with gold.
6:23. And he made in the oracle two cherubims of olive tree, of ten
cubits in height.
6:24. One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the
cherub was five cubits: that is, in all ten cubits, from the extremity
of one wing to the extremity of the other wing.
6:25. The second cherub also was ten cubits: and the measure, and the
work was the same in both the cherubims:
6:26. That is to say, one cherub was ten cubits high, and in like manner
the other cherub.
6:27. And he set the cherubims in the midst of the inner temple: and the
cherubims stretched forth their wings, and the wing of the one touched
one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall: and
the other wings in the midst of the temple touched one another.
6:28. And he overlaid the cherubims with gold.
6:29. And all the walls of the temple round about he carved with divers
figures and carvings: and he made in them cherubims and palm trees, and
divers representations, as it were standing out, and coming forth from
the wall.
6:30. And the floor of the house he also overlaid with gold within and
without.
6:31. And in the entrance of the oracle, he made little doors of olive
tree, and posts of five corners,
6:32. And two doors of olive tree: and he carved upon them figures of
cherubims, and figures of palm trees, and carvings very much projecting;
and he overlaid them with gold: and he covered both the cherubims and
the palm trees, and the other things, with gold.
6:33. And he made in the entrance of the temple posts of olive tree
foursquare:
6:34. And two doors of fir tree, one of each side: and each door was
double, and so opened with folding leaves.
6:35. And he carved cherubims, and palm trees, and carved work standing
very much out: and he overlaid all with golden plates in square work by
rule.
6:36. And he built the inner court with three rows of polished stones,
and one row of beams of cedar.
6:37. In the fourth year was the house of the Lord founded, in the month
Zio:
6:38. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul. (which is the eighth
month) the house was finished in all the works thereof, and in all the
appurtenances thereof: and he was seven years in building it.